


claude is here (for one night only)

by malevon



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, PDA, claude is the touchiest husband don’t change my mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 11:14:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20241922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malevon/pseuds/malevon
Summary: I get very emotional about the fact that Byleth can wind back time.





	claude is here (for one night only)

**Author's Note:**

> set just a few hours after the end of GD route. spoilers inbound!

One night. Claude allows himself one night to stay at Garreg Mach, to let his wounds he sustained in the fight with Nemesis to heal. He only allows himself one night with Byleth because he knows if he stays any longer he’ll never be able to go to Almyra, and he can’t afford that, not when he’s so damn close to achieving what he’s been dreaming of.

One night in the company of his queen before he disappears again.

Byleth wraps up the last of his cuts for him, a jagged gash on his arm from a levin sword gone astray while he was holding the ballista position. It stings just as much as it did when he first received it, and he winces, much to his chagrin.

“You need to stay here longer, Claude,” Byleth says in that flatline voice of hers, but the way her hands linger too long on his arm lets him know that she’s genuinely worried. She usually is. “Marianne told me that he cracked a couple of your ribs.”

“Ah, that silly gal,” he says, and tries to laugh it off, but the cracked ribs in question scream in protest. “I’m fine. I have matters that need attending.”

Byleth hums, and Claude watches her idly fiddle with her new piece of jewelry on her left hand. His heart is still fluttering. She sits down next to him on the bed in her quarters and sighs. “How long will you be gone?”

“I’ll make it as quick as I can. One month. Two, at the absolute latest.”

“And you’ll come back?”

Her voice is so small. It makes Claude’s fluttering heart still.

“Of _course_ I will, Teach,” he swears, picking his legs up from hanging off the side of the bed and casually throwing them over her lap, leaning his forehead on her shoulder. He’s never been afraid of physical contact; an arm around some shoulders, a pat on the back, ruffling hair, it’s always come natural to him - he likes to think it’s part of his charming demeanor. With Byleth, however, it’s somehow always been different. Touching her felt sacred. During the war, he had lived off the crumbs of the brush of a hand, a grazing of fingers. Those holy moments had pushed him towards this day, this day when he would get the opportunity to make her his wife. 

And now, there’s not an ounce of her personal space he’s willing to leave open.

“I promise you, I will come back,” he repeats, whispering it like a prayer. Byleth nods, and out of the corner of his eye, Claude sees her fists clench on her knees.

“You almost didn’t,” he hears her say, and this makes him frown.

“What do you mean?”

Claude takes his legs from their position in Byleth’s lap and crosses them, lifting his forehead from her shoulder and gently reaching over to get her to look at him. When she does, Claude is none the more happy to see the emotion living in her eyes. _So foreign_.

“What do you mean, By?”

He’s never called her that before. It feels right. She doesn’t object.

Instead, she mirrors him, crossing her legs across from his so their knees touch. Always touching. “You died today, Claude,” she says. Her voice, so flat. Never matching her eyes.

He’s known about her ability to wind back time. He’s heard brief mentions of others dying, Byleth saving them. He’s wondered what the past six years would have been like if she hadn’t saved Edelgard.

“And you’ve died before,” she continues before he can think of _anything_ to say. “You’ve died before. Protecting others.” She takes a shaky breath. “Protecting me.

“But this was different. I almost - almost lost you, for good,” she goes on, and her voice is so quiet now that Claude has to lean in, even though they’re the only two in the room. “Nemesis knocked you aside, and I - I couldn’t get to you immediately. I had to strike him down. And I did. And Claude, I _swear_, I ran to you, and you - you didn’t - you weren’t -“

“Byleth.”

She has never talked this much. She has never sounded this unsure of herself. It makes him want to wither.

“You were _broken_, and I was so shocked that I didn’t even turn the time back immediately, and the thread was so weak by the time I got to it. I almost let you slip through my fingers. Almost, Claude.”

“Byleth -“

“And it would have been just like _him_.”

Claude doesn’t speak, not anymore. Instead, he reaches out, snaking one arm around her waist and one arm around her shoulders, pulling her bodily into his lap. She accepts it, and Claude is grateful for it. She’s so small. So much power fit into her small body. How does she take it all, he wonders? How do such tiny shoulders carry all the burdens that rest on them?

He feels them shake. He squints his eyes shut, and focuses on his fingers in her hair. He makes a point to breathe a little deeper, so she can feel it. He’s sure she can feel his heart racing in his neck. He’s trying everything. He needs her to _know_.

“I’m not lost,” he says after a few minutes of this. “I’m here, I’m here. You _saved_ me, By.” He’s whispering into her ear, squeezing her tighter with every shuddering breath he feels her exhale. “Dear goddess, you saved us _all_.”

“You’re all I have left, Claude,” she admits, and it’s so muffled by the fabric of his undershirt and the warmth of his skin that he almost misses it. But he could never. 

“I’ll write to you. As often as they’ll allow me to,” he promises. He’s made too many promises tonight. He pushes Byleth away, but keeps his hands on her, on her hips, her arms, her knees, anywhere she’ll allow them. “And when the time comes for me to come back,” he says, and presses a quick kiss to her forehead before meeting it with his own, “I’ll be the first one through those gates. So make sure you keep it clean for my grand advent.”

She smiles. His heart stops again.

“I sure will try,” she nods, her voice weak. It’s not booming like it was when she announced to the Alliance army that the victory they had sought for the long months had finally come to them. Soft. Reserved for him only.

Claude presses another kiss to her cheek, and then one on the opposite corner of her mouth. “Just wait for me. That’s all I ask.”

“I can do that,” she promises.

And, as sure as the sun in the sky rises again to usher in a new dawn for the now-unified country of Fódlan, all of the promises made between the young Archbishop and the new king of Almyra are kept, without hesitation and without fail.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr! @malevon


End file.
